On Parents' Day, stories of unmatched sacrifices surface during a raging pandemic

Hyderabad: As the world celebrates National Parents' Day on Sunday, 26 July, stories emerge of incomparable and unmatched sacrifices by a few parents, who left no stone unturned to provide a better life to their children.

It was June of 2019 that Shyam celebrated the birth of his daughter Aushi. A resident of Vishakhapatnam, Shyam was the owner of a small food counter and worked as a manager at a few hotels. Within a month, his wife and he saw Aushi experiencing health issues. She was soon diagnosed with having two holes in her heart and had been experiencing continuous pain on a daily basis.

Speaking to Newsmeter, Shyam said, "I brought her to Hyderabad from Vishakhapatnam in an emergency ambulance last September. We consulted several doctors and in June her surgery was planned at the Star Hospital."

Stemming from an underprivileged background, Shyam and his family were unable to gather the funds required for her surgery, and so in May, they decided to seek help from Milaap, a crowdfunding platform. Around Rs 7 lakh was required for Aushi's surgery that was raised through online crowd-funding in just a few weeks.

Despite this, Shyam continued to work as a motorcycle driver to earn money for Aushi's upcoming surgeries hoping that his hard work will result in his daughter having a healthy life.

In another gut-wrenching effort by parents to secure a better future for their child, Bhoodevi, daily wage labourer, was shocked when her 17-year-old son was diagnosed with Wilson’s Disease that affects the liver. She first saw the signs of the disease when her son, Naga Raju, was 8-years-old but it did not come to light until he reached his late teens. He was asked to take expensive medicines to stay alive. Bhoodevi and her husband ensured the supply of the same by working hard enough to be able to purchase them.

In January 2020, Naga Raju started showing signs of a more severe condition. He began laughing involuntarily, which, Bhoodevi said, was the scariest moment of her life. Doctors informed her that Naga Raju's disease was at its end stage, and to prevent his liver from failing, he would have to undergo an operation within a few days.

Beaten down by luck in an extremely low paying job and left alone to take care of her husband, who is paralysed, and her ill child, Bhoodevi approached Milaap in June 2020. The required sum was raised through crowd-funding by 16 June, and Naga Raju underwent surgery on 7 July and his mother donated a part of her liver too. “I could see the changes in him before my very eyes. Sometimes I would catch him just staring ahead blankly, and then suddenly, he would smile. But he doesn’t have control over any of this," she said. The website was able to garner over Rs 23 lakh for Bhoodevi and her family. Both mother and son are living healthy now.